Phenotype of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) B-Cells

✍ Scribed by Cafaro, A. ;Napolitano, M. ;Zoli, V. ;Pacilli, L. ;Mezzaroma, I. ;Laurenzi, A. ;Pandolfi, F.

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1987
• Weight: 403 KB
• Volume: 54
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1432-0584
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00326026

✦ Synopsis

In the present report we studied the phenotype of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 25 patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Cells from all the cases expressed monoclonal surface immunoglobulins (SmIg), formed rosettes with mouse erythrocytes (MRFC) and were positive with OKB 2 and OKIa monoclonal antibodies. In addition, CCB 1 monoclonal antibody was positive in 17 out of 20, Leu-1 in 18 out of 21 and Leu-8 in 23 out of 25 cases. Double labelling experiments confirmed that the Leu-8 antigen was co-expressed on Leu-1+, CCB2+, HLA-DR+ B-CLL cells. Thus, B-CLL cells generally express the SmIg+, MRFC+, Leu-1+, OKB2+, Leu-8+ phenotype. Since it is known that normal peripheral blood B cells may be divided into two subpopulations according to Leu-8 expression, our data indicate that B-CLL cells originate from the more immature Leu-8+ B-cell subset which will respond to anti-IgM, whereas it reacts poorly to pokeweed mitogen.